Romain Henry winner of the inaugural Sud de France UK Sommelier of the Year

Published: 23 September, 2009

The last month has been very busy with the preparation of the Sud de France Sommelier of the year. I have also been building the Languedoc Roussillon wine list up for the Maze Grill which was timed quite well as it gave me a great opportunity to taste all the wines from the region.

The last month has been very busy with the preparation of the Sud de France Sommelier of the year.

I have also been building the Languedoc Roussillon wine list up for the Maze Grill which was timed quite well as it gave me a great opportunity to taste all the wines from the region.

Our day-to-day work is pretty similar, we're very busy around the restaurant as we have an average turnover of 80-100 covers per night, therefore we tend to do a lot of ordering and that also means we have to taste a lot of new wines.

The main thing I have been working towards is building an organic and bio-dynamic list. It's something I wanted to do when I started at Maze Grill a year ago and I have been implementing it over the past six to seven months. At the moment we are 75 per cent organic, by October I hope to have it 100 per cent.

It's a great way forward for several reasons; firstly customers get to taste better wines and because there are no chemicals, fertilsers or sulphur dioxides they don't go home with headaches which means they tend to order an extra bottle!

Secondly, in my opinion organic and bio-dynamic wines taste much better because to me it tastes of real wine. It's a very exciting move because it means I can find the right wine, made from the right winemaker who for me has the right way of thinking.

Also people are interested as every wine has a story to tell. Organic and bio-dynamic is all about education and customers are fascinated by the stories and the processes that go into bio-dynamic winemaking.

Because of that they have become a lot more receptive and open-minded to trying different wines.

My life now will get busier after winning the Sud du France Sommelier of the Year, it's a great achievement for me, especially as I only came to London in 2006.